Kids have good reason to be frightened – but parents should assure them they’re not likely to be hurt by the type of gun-wielding maniac who shot up a Los Angeles Jewish community center yesterday, experts say.

“To tell them not to be worried or scared is a mistake, because those are legitimate feelings,” said Dr. Paul Gitelson, executive vice president of the New York-based Jewish Child Care Association.

“Let your kids know that you know they might be afraid, that you know this is a scary time for them,” said Gitelson, whose doctorate is in social work. “Let them know you are there if they need you.”

Dr. Gilda Carle, a Westchester psychologist who is writing a book about anger, said, “You have to tell your kids that there are crazy people out there.”

But Carle said parents should emphasize the reality – that most people aren’t crazy, and that children face very small odds of being hurt in school or summer camp or day care.

“You don’t want the children to feel as though they are living in constant fear, because that will set them up for dysfunction,” said Carle. “You want to make them feel as though they are safe.”

Dr. Alan Hilfer, a child psychologist at Maimonedes Medical Center in Brooklyn, said, “All parents can do is assure their kids that they and the people in charge are doing everything they possibly can to effect their safety.”

Hilfer said parents might try this line of reasoning: “These are very unusual things that happen, and they aren’t going to happen to [you], and everything will be done to prevent it from happening.”

But Hilfer and Gitelson concede that mass shootings seem to be getting so common, parents may be running out of helpful things to tell their kids.

The frequency of the shootings “puts some credibility question in children’s minds about the grown-ups,” said Hilfer.

Gitelson said the number of the shootings – and their extensive coverage by the media – is making children more anxious.

“This is scary stuff,” he said. “But kids are very resilient. They can bounce back, if we are there to be supportive of them.”